Turkey: Authorities close their doors at the German School of Izmir

Booth: 14:51 | Reading time: 2 minutes

T According to official figures, the Turkish authorities closed the German school in Izmir. The director, Dirk Philippi, said that a delegation of local education authorities, accompanied by a dozen policemen, visited the school Thursday, explaining "in writing and orally "that they had no" legal basis ". The school was then sealed. The lessons do not bother the measure – it's the summer holidays. However, the case could cause new tensions between Germany and Turkey.

"I am firmly convinced that it is a temporary closure," said Philippi. There was a permit from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs stating that the Izmir school, in western Turkey, could be run as an embbady branch of the Turkish Embbady. Germany in Ankara. "It may just be that the education authorities are missing only documents." There is an animated exchange "at all levels", that he "very positive" vote, said Philippi.

The Foreign Office confirmed the closure of the school by the regional authorities of the Ministry of Education. The Turkish government is urged to explain the reasons immediately, he said in Berlin. German schools in Turkey are an essential element of cultural and educational relations between the two countries.

180 children go to school and kindergarten

According to the Federal Government website on German representations in Turkey the private school of the Embbady of Germany in Ankara ", founded in 2008. It is a comprehensive school.According to the director, about 180 children attend school and the adjoining children's garden.